Hello to all! I was introduced to AFI back in late '06 to early '07ish by way of an MXC marathon I’d taped on MTV, where first Miss Murder and then Love Like Winter were two of the many music videos played between different episodes.

Life got in the way until the 5th of May 2007 (I can’t forget, it’s tattooed on my right foot), where I finally found myself able to buy a copy of Decemberunderground on iTunes. I joined the official forums that day, and within a week had successfully convinced my mother to buy me a Despair Faction membership, as I was too young to have a credit card at the time. I doubt anyone from the forums would remember me, but I was skenasis on there too.

After the forums shut down, I all but lost any sense of community, except for one small Facebook group of Aussie DFers. My partner enjoys seeing AFI live and goes with me when they’re here, but doesn’t listen to them beyond that. It’ll be nice to be able to chat about all things relating to my favourite band with folks who aren’t just smiling and nodding at me.

On the non-AFI front, I’m a 30 year old Aussie working part-time in retail after having wasted 18 months of my life working on a now-failed genetics PhD through a negligent university. Long story, don’t particularly want to get into the details because I get quite enraged if I think about it for too long.

I also work as a specialist back of house volunteer at Melbourne Museum, primarily in the DNA labs, but sometimes borrowed elsewhere if needed (currently with the mammal collection).